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Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Saturday, January 11, 2014

A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.
Was Bigfoot really gunned down in Texas?

He’s released several photos, and a YouTube video of folks reacting to a sneak peek. But he’s holding back on fuller disclosure, he says, until a Feb. 9 news conference presenting results of scientific studies by a Washington State university. Later: A national tour.

“I have the whole body. I have scientific evidence. I have DNA sequencing. ... I have everything you want,” he told “Wake Up!” an Australian TV show.

In an article for the first edition of Cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that cryptozoology is the study of 'unexpected animals' and following on from that perfectly reasonable assertion, it seems to us that whereas the study of out-of-place birds may not have the glamour of the hunt for bigfoot or lake monsters, it is still a perfectly valid area for the Fortean zoologist to be interested in.

During the last few days, this rather impressive photograph has started doing the rounds on the internet. It was sent to me by FB friend Margit From who had found it on the website of The Lightly Braised Turnip, which we all know is a bastion of truth. They basically claim that an enormous squid has beached itself on the coast of California and that it was a result of radioactive pollution from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.

Impressive picture, one must say, although the shadow under the creatures looks a bit iffy to say the least. Maybe because this squid had already beached itself in october 2013 in Spain. On that occasion it was considerably smaller, although the photographer by creative use of forced perspective did his best to make it look monstrous. This picture can be seen on the www.live.science.com.

All in all, a nice piece of photoshop work - but thanks to eagly-eyed FB contact Martin Relsted, I can also show you the original picture the squid was superimposed upon. In this case a picture from a whale-stranding in Chile in November 2011.

The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper-column inches than any other cryptozoological subject. There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived by us in some way, so we are publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. The worldwide mystery cat phenomenon (or group of phenomena, if we are
to be more accurate) is not JUST about cryptozoology. At its most basic
level it is about the relationship between our species and various
species of larger cat. That is why sometimes you will read stories
here that appear to have nothing to do with cryptozoology but have
everything to do with human/big cat interaction. As committed Forteans,
we believe that until we understand the nature of these interactions, we
have no hope of understanding the truth that we are seeking.

Yesterday I wrote that I was in a bizarrely good mood. Sad to report, it lasted just about as long as it took me to mail out all the notifications with this comment in it. The internet died almost immediately and now, once again, I am in the position of working on an ancient laptop in the corner of the sitting room. Add to that the fact that the email I sent about the final tweak to volume two of the Journal of Cryptozoology must have gone astray and it took a string of telephone calls before it was finally entered in for processing, and the good mood was a thing of history.

A big apology to everyone who has been waiting for the Journal of Cryptozoology since the end of November. Although the initial cock up (to use the technical term) was my fault, the two or three most recent ones have been completely beyond my control. However, I have every reason to suppose that it will be mailed out next week.

* The Gonzo Daily is a two-way process. If you have any news or want to write for us, please contact me at jon@eclipse.co.uk. If you are an artist and want to showcase your work or even just say hello, please write to me at gonzo@cfz.org.uk. Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as widely as possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as it is viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the fun, spread the word, and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it raining. See you tomorrow....

* The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine (mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of companies. But it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The same team also do a weekly newsletter called - imaginatively - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link: www.gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html

* We should probably mention here that some of our posts are links to things we have found on the internet that we think are of interest. We are not responsible for spelling or factual errors in other people's websites. Honest guv!

* Jon Downes, the editor of all these ventures (and several others), is an old hippy of 54 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) - puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon, which he shares with various fish and sometimes a small Indian frog. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus...did we mention the orange cat?

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